November 19, 2017 Night

Good evening! Where did the weekend go so quickly? Mostly cloudy and 34 degrees in Delmar, NY. When I wen out for my evening walk I thought it was pretty nice. Not too cold. Some breaks in the clouds. A few snow squalls especially when driving back from Westerlo. The skies will clear tomorrow around 11 pm. 

Tonight will be scattered rain and snow showers before 11pm, then scattered snow showers. Mostly cloudy, with a low of 27 degrees at 5am. Six degrees below normal. West wind 10 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 26 mph. Chance of precipitation is 40%. Total nighttime snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible. In 2016, we had partly cloudy skies with more clouds in the early hours of the next day. It got down to 30 degrees. The record low of 6 occurred back in 1986.

The First Quarter Moon is next Sunday with mostly clear skies expected. The Cold Moon is in 2 weeks. The sun will rise at 6:53 am with the first light at 6:22 am, which is one minute and 13 seconds later than yesterday. Tonight will have 14 hours and 25 minutes of darkness, an increase of one minute and 57 seconds over last night.

Tomorrow will be scattered snow showers before 10am, then scattered rain and snow showers between 10am and noon, then scattered rain showers after noon. Mostly cloudy, with a high of 40 degrees at 1pm. Six degrees below normal. West wind 11 to 16 mph, with gusts as high as 28 mph. Chance of precipitation is 40%. New snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible. A year ago, we had patches of fog in the morning with more sun in the afternoon. The high last year was 42 degrees. The record high of 72 was set in 1991. 3.4 inches of snow fell back in 1961.

Next weekend looks to be somewhat cloudy! Next Saturday, a chance of rain and snow showers. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 42. Chance of precipitation is 40%. Next Sunday, a chance of rain and snow showers. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 38. Chance of precipitation is 30%. Typical average high for the weekend is 44 degrees.

Right now I’m a bit concerned about the potential for freezing rain up north on Saturday, but I am inclined to spend two nights in the Adirondacks, maybe doing some hiking, some hunting and just enjoying the scenery. The last time I was in the Adirondacks was September, so it has been a while. 

Checked at the car wash place and yes my big jacked up truck will clear with the solar panel on the roof. I have the base plate and bolts I need now, the aluminum bars to fashion cross bars for the panel. I checked out Lowes but I want a thicker aluminum bar so it doesn’t flex too much in the wind. Then just measure the holes I need to drill, mark up the aluminum, drill them and bolt the panel in place. Should work well. Running the wire will be simple, I’m just going to use plastic  Romex to run the solar wire I already have to the solar controller in the truck. The panel will always be charging the accessory battery, that is when the battery is discharged. 

Bought groceries and supplies. Worked on some code today including the Arduino light dimmer. Getting a lot of errors with the chip, I must have fried a portion of the memory when I short circuited things out. Well the replacement module should arrive midweek.  Sunday night dinner was great with the folks. 

In four weeks on December 17 the sun will be setting at 4:23 pm, which is 5 minutes and 16 seconds earlier then tonight. In 2016 on that day, we had rain, drizzle, freezing rain, freezing drizzle, snow, heavy fog, freezing fog, mist, cloudy skies and temperatures between 35 and 20 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 35 and 21 degrees. The record high of 59 degrees was set back in 1984.

Looking ahead, Cold Moon is in 2 weeks, New Years Eve is in 6 weeks, National Hug Day is in 9 weeks, Winnie the Pooh Day is in 13 weeks, Daylight Savings Time returns in 15 weeks, Presidents Day is in 2 months and April Fools Day and Easter is in 19 weeks.

November 19, 2017 8 PM Update

Three weeks from now the sun will be setting the earliest time of the year for Albany — 4:22 PM. That’s about six months earlier then tonight. After then, the sunsets start get later, slowly at first but rapidly accelerating as we head towards spring. Daylight Savings Time begins in 15 weeks!

Earliest Sunset – Saturday, December 9 at 4:22 pm
4:30 pm sunset – Wednesday, December 27
4:45 pm sunset – Friday, January 12
5:00 pm sunset – Wednesday, January 24
5:15 pm sunset – Sunday, February 4
5:30 pm sunset – Friday, February 16
5:45 pm sunset – Wednesday, February 28
Daylight Savings Time Begins – Sunset on Sunday, March 11 is at 6:57 pm
7:00 pm sunset – Monday, March 12
7:15 pm sunset – Sunday, March 25
7:30 pm sunset – Saturday, April 7

How The Federal Reserve Manages Money Supply

How The Federal Reserve Manages Money Supply

The federal reserve is a private association of banks and financial institutions. As it's actions have significant economic implications, the federal reserve does have an appointed head by the president but all other bank governors are selected by the banks who are members of the federal reserve.

It exists primarily to prevent bank panics by requiring banks hold a percentage of their reserves in cash and be a lender of last resort to banks who face demands for cash that they don't have in their own vaults and other banks are unwilling to lend to them.

The federal reserve occasionally changes the reserve rate for banks and often changes the discount rate, the rate they charge to banks at last resort that need a loan that no private bank will give them. Changing the discount rate influences the rate banks charge on loans. In times of extreme recession, the fed will do quanative easing aka open market operations which means that they either force banks to buy government bonds so that they have more cash to loan out or force them to pay back the bonds to take money out of the market.

The rational for doing this is publicly stated by the fed. The reserve rate, discount rate, and total open market amounts are released. Internal deliberations and individual transactions with banks are kept private to avoid market speculation. While the federal reserve sounds scary and has a massive impact on the economy, it generally does a good job at moderating inflation and recessions. Obviously people can and do disagree whether more or less unemployment or inflation is better.